Cameras which capture sound as well as visual images are well known in the art. However, the biggest challenge presented by images with associated audio segments is maintaining the correct sound-to-picture correspondence from the time the images and audio segments are captured until the image is viewed and the corresponding audio segment is played. This is particularly problematic when the printed images are placed in an album. People typically discard some printed images that are unappealing or blurry, and group other pictures in an album in a non-sequential order for effect or because of the restrictions associated with fitting multiple format pictures, including vertical and horizontal shots, as well as panoramic shots onto album pages. Thus, the first image from a roll of film may be placed at the back of an album or in any other position in the album, such that the first image in the album will not correspond with the first audio segment stored in memory. Therefore, while the audio segments are maintained in a chronological order according to when they were recorded, the printed images may be arranged in any order, which makes associating the images with the corresponding audio segments difficult.
Others have proposed affixing magnetic tapes directly to the printed images in order to associate the image with the corresponding audio segment. Thus, in those devices there is no concern with regard to maintaining the proper correspondence between the images and audio segments. However, these image/audio segment combinations require a specially designed playback unit in order to reproduce the audio segment. Furthermore, such a construction prevents the printed images from being permanently placed in a photograph album, as the printed images must be physically placed in the playback unit each time the viewer wants to hear the audio segment. Thus, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that this method is inefficient and relatively expensive by requiring a special playback unit.
In addition, others have proposed books including printed pages and stored audio segments corresponding with the respective printed pages. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,573 discloses a book having printed pages, with each bearing multiple printed graphic designs. The book is sensitive to the pages being turned to retrieve and play a corresponding audio segment, based upon the page to which the book is turned. However, such a construction fails to disclose any means for maintaining the correspondence between images and audio segments in the event the image locations are changed. Thus, the issue of correlating a user-positioned image with a corresponding audio segment is in no way dealt with by this reference.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,552 discloses an audio-visual book that includes multiple printed pages bearing graphics and text, and including a plurality of push buttons that correspond with respective audio segments. The device provides a recording mode of operation for recording over the original factory recordings. However, there is a predetermined correspondence between the graphics and the audio segments, and therefore the issue of correlating a user-positioned image with a corresponding audio segment is not addressed or resolved by this reference either.
Other prior art devices have addressed the need to determine the page to which a book is opened. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,809,246 and 4,636,881 describe different approaches for determining the current page being viewed. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,881, an infrared detector is used to detect the turning of pages. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,246, cutouts formed on each page give a unique pattern to an array of light detectors, and that pattern can be decoded to determine the current page. As with the other prior art devices mentioned above, neither of these devices addresses the problem of correlating a user-positioned image with a corresponding audio segment.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,544 describes the use of optical devices integrated into the pages of a photo album to determine which page and which image are of interest to the viewer, for the purpose of playback of a corresponding audio segment. Such a system calls for the playback of an audio segment based upon the page to which the album is opened, and discloses a means that allows a user to place images in the album on particular pages and in particular locations on those pages. However, the device does not address the problem of establishing links between the corresponding audio segments with the user-selected positions. Thus, it will be apparent that none of the prior art described herein has resolved or even addressed the problem of linking audio segments with the corresponding printed images that have been randomly placed in an image holder by a user.
Accordingly, it will be apparent that there continues to be a need for an image holder that may "learn" where particular printed images have been placed in an image holder for associating that location in the image holder with the corresponding audio segment. In addition, there is a need for such an image holder that can re-learn the printed image locations each time a viewer adds new images to the image holder or changes image locations within the image holder so that the locations can be linked with the appropriate audio segments. The present invention addresses these needs and others.